By Prof. Al Mariam

U.S and U.K. issue warning to their citizens planning travel in Ethiopia

Time was tourists flocked to Ethiopia in search of the “Land of 13-Months of Sunshine” and adventure. Ziggy Marley, son of the late great reggae king Bob Marley, even wrote a song about it:

By Prof. Al Mariam

Last week, for the third time in the past year, the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-TPLF) unplugged the internet.

The reasons are a bit fuzzy. Some T-TPLF officials say the shutdown aims to prevent “student cheating on national exams”. During a similar clampdown last year, T-TPLF spokesman said the internet was unplugged because “social media have proven to be a distraction for students.”

By Prof. Al Mariam

Last week, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in an op-ed piece, openly questioned whether the U.N. “Human Rights Council actually supports human rights or is merely a showcase for dictatorships that use their membership to whitewash brutality.” She charged, “The victims of the world’s most egregious human rights violations are ignored by the very organization that is supposed to protect them.”

By Prof. Al Mariam

Author’s Note: Last week, Vision of Humanity issued its 2017 Global Peace Index (GPI). Its report on Ethiopia is certainly the most distressing though unequivocal, straightforward and clear-cut. The state of peace worsened in Ethiopia more than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa, and arguably the rest of the world.

By Mammo Muchie, Professor

I know no national boundary where the African is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free.Marcus. M. Garvey.

The expression of many identities is seen as the celebration of diversity and a legitimate vehicle for claims to political and other forms of rights. The resolution of diverse identities into compound /combined identities and unities is often suspect bearing the implication that rights and diversity might be sacrificed in the process of bringing about a new combination or synthesis to distinct and plural identities.

By Prof. Al Mariam

Ethiopia has been under a state of emergency decree since October 2016. That decree imposes “draconian restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly that go far beyond what is permissible under international law.” There has been a significant deterioration in human rights violations in Ethiopia over the past decade.

By Prof. Al Mariam

On May 28, 1991, a rag tag rebel army of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) marched into Ethiopia’s capital. That day shall eternally live in infamy.

By Meskelu Ayele

The translator’s note – I would like to thank Meskelu Ayele, an outstanding writer on opposition websites in recent times, for his amazingly superb, timely, and brief piece of writing he made us read this morning. I am really wordless to express my gratification during and after my reading of his piece. He concisely reminded me of my almost ‘agelong’ readings on the subject he directly mentioned and indirectly alluded in his short and precise message. I also tried to imply this subject of world leaders in my recent letter entitled “WHO is falling headlong into the Abyss of Decadence?” which was posted on many websites.